'Cyberpunk 2077' Is Being Review Bombed Again, For Very Different Reasons

Cyberpunk 2077 is once again being review bombed, albeit for very different reasons this time around.

CD Projekt RED's controversial sci-fi RPG received thousands of negative reviews when it launched at the end of 2020. Many fans felt the game fell far short of what the studio had promised, citing a janky open world and a myriad of technical issues that greatly hampered the experience - especially on base PlayStation 4 and Xbox One machines.

Take a look at our initial assessment of Cyberpunk 2077 back from when the game released below!

Fast forward a year and several months, and Cyberpunk 2077 is in a much healthier state. Updates have fixed a lot of the game's worst issues, and the recently released PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X version of the game is so much closer to the RPG fans thought they were going to get back in 2020.

Positive user reviews for the game on websites like Steam and Metacritic have been gradually ticking up ever since, but it now looks as if disgruntled users are once again hitting out at Cyberpunk 2077. This time, however, it has nothing to do with the game itself.

Last week, the CD Projekt Group was one of the many video game companies to announce it would be suspending sales of its games in Russia. The decision was made in response to Putin's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of innocents and displaced tens of thousands more.

"The entire CD Projekt Group stands firm with the people of Ukraine." The Group's statement read. "While we are not a political entity capable of directly influencing state matters, and don't aspire to be one, we do believe that commercial entities, when united, have the power to inspire global change in the hearts and minds of ordinary people."

Clearly, this move has not gone down well. As pointed out on Reddit, Cyberpunk 2077 is currently being review bombed on Steam - by people all over the world - because CD Projekt took a stance on the invasion.

At the time of writing, there has been a clear surge in Cyberpunk 2077's negative reviews on Steam. While a few still discuss their issues being with the game and its overall performance, a large number of the bad reviews specifically mention the Russia/Ukraine conflict.

Some of the reviews brand CDPR "liars", while others insist that "video games should not be about politics!".

"There's nothing punk about mixing with politics, go f**k yourself, cdpr", one warm-hearted friend of humanity writes. I'm not an expert, but I'd argue taking a stance against war is actually pretty punk.

It's a similar story over on Metacritic. The vast majority of recent reviews are in Russian, and speak of punishing ordinary people for the actions of the government. Others accuse the studio of being Nazis, and traitors to the Russian people.